Ceptory

Security monitoring

How to monitor CCTV footage with AI: review a day of cameras in minutes

Stop scrubbing. Index a day or a night of camera footage from one site or many, search it for the events you care about, and get a daily CCTV review report that tells you what happened and what needs a look.

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About 10 minutes a daySecurity managers and SOC operators · Facilities and site managers · Multi-site retail and c-store operationsUpdated
A dark video management wall of 12 camera feeds, with a coral alert badge on one camera.

Quick answer: how to monitor CCTV footage with AI: review a day of cameras in minutes

  1. 1.Create the "cctv-daily-review" index. An index keeps this workflow's footage, searches and reports together.
  2. 2.Upload the footage. Upload yesterday's exports from entrances, perimeters, car parks and stock areas first.
  3. 3.Let Ceptory index it. Scenes, objects, speech and on-screen text are mapped onto one timeline.
  4. 4.Find the moments in plain language. Search for the events your team checks every morning, after-hours presence first, then doors and vehicles.
  5. 5.Generate the daily cctv review with AI. The prompt asks for a summary, notable events, after-hours activity, anomalies, and a ranked list of clips to investigate.
  6. 6.Review, export and share. Send the review to the morning stand-up or security channel; open an incident report for anything in the to-investigate list.

What you'll end up with

What to include in a daily cctv review

A daily CCTV review report: activity by camera, notable events with timestamps, after-hours activity, anything out of the ordinary, and the clips worth investigating.

  1. 01Overnight summaryThe day or night in three sentences: quiet, busy, or unusual.
  2. 02Notable eventsTimestamp, camera, and what happened, in order.
  3. 03After-hours activityPeople or vehicles present outside normal hours.
  4. 04AnomaliesOpen doors, blocked exits, unattended items, equipment issues.
  5. 05To investigateThe clips a person should watch, ranked.

Free template

Daily CCTV review template and AI prompt

Copy the template to fill in by hand, or the prompt to have Ceptory write the report from your footage.

Daily CCTV review template
# Daily CCTV review

Site / index: ____________   Period covered: ____________   Prepared by: ____________

## 1. Overnight summary
The day or night in three sentences: quiet, busy, or unusual.

## 2. Notable events
Timestamp, camera, and what happened, in order.

## 3. After-hours activity
People or vehicles present outside normal hours.

## 4. Anomalies
Open doors, blocked exits, unattended items, equipment issues.

## 5. To investigate
The clips a person should watch, ranked.
AI prompt Ceptory runs
You are a security operator writing the daily CCTV review from the footage in this index. Write:

1. Summary: three sentences on the period covered. Was it quiet, busy, or unusual?
2. Notable events: a table with columns Timestamp, Camera, and Event, in chronological order. Include arrivals, departures, deliveries, and anything that stands out.
3. After-hours activity: people or vehicles present outside normal operating hours, with timestamps.
4. Anomalies and conditions: doors or gates left open, blocked exits, unattended items, lights or cameras that look obstructed or dark.
5. To investigate: up to five clips a person should watch, ranked by urgency, each with a one-line reason.

Describe people by clothing and behaviour, never by identity. Mark anything uncertain as "unconfirmed".

Step by step

How to create a daily cctv review with Ceptory

  1. Step 1

    Create the "cctv-daily-review" index

    • Open New → New index and name it cctv-daily-review. The dashboard prefills the name when you start from the guide.
    • Add a short description so teammates know what belongs in it: "Yesterday's camera exports for the daily review, one camera or one night per upload."
    • Keep one index per workflow or site. Search and analysis run inside a single index, so mixing unrelated footage makes results noisier.

    Tip: Already have footage indexed? Pick that index in the guide instead of creating a new one.

  2. Step 2

    Upload the footage

    • Open New → Upload videos, choose the index, and drop in MP4, MOV or WebM files (4 seconds to 1 hour each, up to 2 GB per file).
    • Upload yesterday's exports from entrances, perimeters, car parks and stock areas first.
    • Keep the original file names. Camera names and timestamps in file names make the report easier to trace back to the source.

    What to upload

    • The previous day or night from each camera you are responsible for, exported from your NVR or VMS.
    • Prioritise entrances, perimeters, car parks and stock areas; these carry most of the events.
    • Keep the camera name and recording start time in each file name.

    Tip: Exporting from an NVR or VMS? Export the native resolution; Ceptory reads 360p to 4K.

    A hub diagram: a puzzle piece connecting cameras, servers, cloud, apps and reports.

  3. Step 3

    Let Ceptory index it

    • Each video moves from Uploading to Processing to Ready. Indexing usually takes a fraction of the video's running time.
    • You can upload more files while earlier ones process. The guide checks this step off as soon as one video is ready.
    • Indexed minutes count against your free allowance first, then your prepaid balance.

  4. Step 4

    Find the moments in plain language

    • Open the index's Search tab and describe what you're looking for the way you'd say it out loud. The guide pre-fills a starter query.
    • Search for the events your team checks every morning, after-hours presence first, then doors and vehicles.
    • Each result is a time range you can play on the spot. Note the timestamps of the moments that belong in the report.

    Searches to start with

    “person on site after hours”“door propped open with nobody around”“vehicle parked in the fire lane”“people loitering near the entrance”

    Tip: Search by appearance and action ("person in a dark jacket carrying a box"), not by names or identities.

    A search bar above four video results, with the matching loading dock clip highlighted in coral.

  5. Step 5

    Generate the daily cctv review with AI

    • Open the Analyze tab. The guide pre-fills a report prompt that asks for the exact sections below, in a fixed order.
    • The prompt asks for a summary, notable events, after-hours activity, anomalies, and a ranked list of clips to investigate.
    • Analyze runs on the most recently processed video in the index, so run it once per clip that matters, or upload one combined export of the window you care about.

    Tip: Edit the prompt freely: add your site name, shift times, or the format your team already files.

    Stacked timeline tracks for video, audio, speech and alert, with the matching time span highlighted in coral and a playhead.

  6. Step 6

    Review, export and share

    • Read the report against the clips. AI output is a draft for a person to confirm, never a final finding.
    • Send the review to the morning stand-up or security channel; open an incident report for anything in the to-investigate list.
    • Use Copy to paste into email or a ticket, or Download to save a Markdown file you can attach or convert to PDF.
    • To run this on a schedule, call POST /api/v1/indexes/{indexId}/analyze with the same prompt from your own scripts.

Why use AI

Writing it by hand vs. with Ceptory

The report is the same. What changes is who watches the footage.

By handWith Ceptory
Finding the momentsScrub every camera at speedSearch in plain language across all of it
TimestampsNoted by hand as you watchAttached to every result and report row
First draftTyped from your notesWritten from the footage in the format you set
ConsistencyVaries by who writes itSame prompt, same sections, every time
Your roleWatch, note, write, checkCheck and sign off

From the field

Tips that make the report better

  • Run the same searches every morning; a fixed list catches more than ad-hoc scrubbing.
  • Keep one index per site so yesterday's events can be compared with last week's.
  • Anything in "to investigate" that turns out real becomes the start of an incident report.
  • Government & securityCCTV storage calculator

FAQ

Daily CCTV review: common questions

Is this live CCTV monitoring?

This guide reviews recorded footage, which is how most teams start: yesterday's cameras, reviewed in minutes the next morning. Continuous monitoring with live alerts across sites is available on Enterprise plans.

How is this faster than watching footage at high speed?

Ceptory indexes the footage once, then every search jumps straight to matching moments across all cameras. You watch the matches, not the hours in between.

Can I review several sites from one place?

Yes. Use one index per site and run the same searches and prompt for each, so every site's daily review has the same shape. Teams running many stores or depots roll the reviews up into one morning report.

Which cameras should I start with?

Entrances, perimeters, car parks and stock areas. They carry most of the events, and adding the rest later costs nothing in setup.

Get started

Create your first daily cctv review free

Sign up, follow this guide in your dashboard, and index 10 minutes of your own footage free.

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A dark video management wall of 12 camera feeds, with a coral alert badge on one camera.